Dean Stewart Donaldson to receive lifetime achievement award from the American Evaluation Association

Friday, September 13, 2013

Stewart Donaldson, professor of psychology, director of the Claremont Evaluation Center, and dean of the School of Social Science, Policy & Evaluation at Claremont Graduate University (CGU), will receive one of the highest honors from the American Evaluation Association. Donaldson will be awarded the 2013 Paul F. Lazarsfeld Evaluation Theory Award for sustained lifetime written contributions to the advancement of evaluation theory and practice.

The award honors Donaldson for his profound impact on the field of evaluation over the past three decades. He will be recognized on October 18 at the American Evaluation Association (AEA) Convention in Washington, DC.

“I am honored and deeply grateful to AEA and my wonderful colleagues who nominated me for this very meaningful and prestigious award,” Donaldson said. “It will be a great challenge for me to live up to the high expectations set by the award, to Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and to the amazing cast of preeminent evaluation scholars who hold this high honor.”

AEA is an international association of professional evaluators devoted to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness. The organization has approximately 7,700 members representing all 50 of the United States as well as over 60 other countries. Donaldson was elected this year to serve as AEA’s president.

Michael Quinn Patton, formerly of the University of Minnesota and founder of Utilization Focused Evaluation, led the nomination. “As an author and full-time evaluation professional, I have learned a great deal in preparing this justification statement – and I come away convinced that Stewart Donaldson is probably our field’s most prolific theorist.”

Donaldson is renowned for his work on theory-driven evaluation, the integration of evaluation theory and practice, applied scientific psychology, and program and organizational development and effectiveness. He has authored, co-authored, and co-edited numerous influential books, peer reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and evaluation reports.

At CGU, Donaldson develops and leads one of the most extensive and rigorous graduate programs specializing in evaluation, teaching numerous university courses and professional development workshops. He has mentored and coached more than 100 graduate students and working professionals during the past two decades. In addition, he has provided evaluation services to more than 100 different organizations and has been principal investigator for more than 30 extramural research and evaluation grants and contracts.

Beyond Claremont, Donaldson has reached out to a global audience through teaching, mentorship, practice, and developing leaders in evaluation sciences. He has influenced the careers of students, faculty, and evaluators through talks and workshops in more than 30 cities throughout the U.S., as well as Africa, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Australia, Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Barbados, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

“I can think of no one else who has done more for promoting our contemporary intellectual theoretical dialogue than Stewart,” said Christina A. Christie, professor and head of the Social Research Methodology Division at University of California, Los Angeles. “His work on evaluation theory represents a set of contributions that indeed warrant distinguished acknowledgement. The Paul F. Lazarsfeld Award is one of AEA’s most celebrated awards and Dr. Stewart Donaldson is more than deserving of this recognition.”

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is the graduate university of the Claremont Colleges. Our five academic schools conduct leading-edge research and award masters and doctoral degrees in 24 disciplines. Because the world’s problems are not simple nor easily defined, diverse faculty and students research and study across the traditional discipline boundaries to create new and practical solutions for the major problems plaguing our world. A Southern California based graduate school devoted entirely to graduate research and study, CGU boasts a low student-to-faculty ratio.